Josh Shaw

Named as one of Musical America’s Top 30 Professionals of the Year in 2023, Josh Shaw is the Founding Artistic Director and CEO of Pacific Opera Project (POP), which has been described as "L.A.'s most exciting opera company." Since turning his attention to directing in 2011, Mr. Shaw has directed and designed over 125 productions at companies including Opera Santa Barbara, New Orleans Opera, Opera Orlando, Festival Opera, Gulfshore Opera, Opera Montana, Salt Marsh Opera, Opera Neo, Queen City Opera, Opera Columbus, Utah Festival Opera, Opera Las Vegas, and Opera in the Heights. Favorite productions include The Rake’s Progress, Ariadne auf Naxos, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Tosca: A Moving Production, The Pirates of Penzance, La Gazzetta, and La boheme: AKA “The Hipsters”.

 

A frequent librettist for English updates, his Star Trek inspired Abduction from the Seraglio and Nintendo inspired The Magic Flute: AKA #SuperFlute have gained national attention and have been produced at multiple companies, shattering attendance records. Other English libretti including a Wild West setting of Die Lustige Witwe, a contemporary setting of Trial by Jury, Covid fan tutte, a 1930s Hollywood Fledermaus, Rusalka, and a groundbreaking production of Madama Butterfly sung in Japanese and English, a co-production of POP and Opera in Heights (Houston).

 

Recent projects include a new English adaptation of Die Fledermaus, a production of Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta starring “The Blind Soprano” Cristina Jones, Turandot, Carmen, Giulio Cesare, Zorro, Fra Diavolo, Into the Woods, and the US premieres of Vivaldi’s Ercole su’l Termodonte, Salieri’s La Scoula de’ Gelosi, and Cagnoni’s Don Bucefalo.